UC Davis News: Research

UC Davis partners in $8.3 million effort to fight childhood malnutrition

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:25:00 -0700

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, will join in an international research effort to develop new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent malnutrition in infants and children around the world.

The Breast Milk, Gut Microbiome and Immunity Project is funded by $8.3 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and will be led by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. UC Davis will receive $1.1 million of the total.

The UC Davis researchers who will participate in the project are nutritionist Kathryn Dewey and microbiologist David Mills.

Severe malnutrition has long been thought to stem simply from a lack of adequate food. But now scientists understand the condition is far more complex and may involve a breakdown in the way gut microbial communities process various components of the diet.

The community of intestinal microbes and its vast collection of genes, known as the gut microbiome, is assembled right from birth and influenced by babies’ early environments and the first foods they consume, such as breast milk.

Through the Breast Milk, Gut Microbiome and Immunity Project, scientists will evaluate the relationship among first foods, the developing community of microbes in the intestine, and the developing immune system.

The new research builds on ongoing clinical studies in Africa, South Asia and South America of malnourished and healthy infants and children and their mothers; the Gates Foundation also funds those studies.

“This multidisciplinary project will allow us to expand our understanding of how to prevent infant malnutrition, which is a major focus of the UC Davis Program in International and Community Nutrition,” Dewey said. “The results of these experiments will provide critical information about whether the lipid-based nutrient supplements that we are evaluating in ongoing research have an influence on the collection of microorganisms in the human gut, which will help us understand the impact of our interventions on child growth."

As director of the International Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplements Project, Dewey is involved with two projects in Malawi that are providing biological samples for the newly funded research consortium. More information about the lipid-based nutrient supplement project is available at: http://ilins.org.

As part of the new project, Mills and his colleagues at the UC Davis Foods for Health Institute will examine the complex, protective sugars in breast milk and characterize specific bacteria in the guts of these infants. The researchers also will look for similar protective sugars in existing dairy products.

“This project will identify specific milk components from commercial dairy streams, which -- in combination with milk-responsive bacteria -- may extend the natural protection of mother's milk past weaning to a fragile population of children who desperately need that protection,” Mills said.

“The opportunity to deliver diet-based solutions in the near term – sourcing from commercial milk operations – is truly exciting, ” he said.

More information about the UC Davis Foods for Health Institute is available at http://ffhi.ucdavis.edu/.

The overall project will be led by Jeffrey I. Gordon at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

When, where and how wood is used impact carbon emissions from deforestation

Mon, 14 May 2012 08:20:00 -0700

A new study from the University of California, Davis, provides a deeper understanding of the complex global impacts of deforestation on greenhouse gas emissions.

The study, published May 13 in the advance online edition of the journal Nature Climate Change, reports that the volume of greenhouse gas released when a forest is cleared depends on how the trees will be used and in which part of the world the trees are grown.

When trees are felled to create solid wood products, such as lumber for housing, that wood retains much of its carbon for decades, the researchers found. In contrast, when wood is used for bioenergy or turned into pulp for paper, nearly all of its carbon is released into the atmosphere. Carbon is a major contributor to greenhouse gases.

“We found that 30 years after a forest clearing, between 0 percent and 62 percent of carbon from that forest might remain in storage,” said lead author J. Mason Earles, a doctoral student with the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies. “Previous models generally assumed that it was all released immediately.”

The researchers analyzed how 169 countries use harvested forests. They learned that the temperate forests found in the United States, Canada and parts of Europe are cleared primarily for use in solid wood products, while the tropical forests of the Southern Hemisphere are more often cleared for use in energy and paper production.

“Carbon stored in forests outside Europe, the USA and Canada, for example, in tropical climates such as Brazil and Indonesia, will be almost entirely lost shortly after clearance,” the study states.

The study’s findings have potential implications for biofuel incentives based on greenhouse gas emissions. For instance, if the United States decides to incentivize corn-based ethanol, less profitable crops, such as soybeans, may shift to other countries. And those countries might clear more forests to make way for the new crops. Where those countries are located and how the wood from those forests is used would affect how much carbon would be released into the atmosphere.

Earles said the study provides new information that could help inform climate models of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading international body for the assessment of climate change.

“This is just one of the pieces that fit into this land-use issue,” said Earles. Land use is a driving factor of climate change. “We hope it will give climate models some concrete data on emissions factors they can use.”

In addition to Earles, the study, “Timing of carbon emissions from global forest clearance,” was co-authored by Sonia Yeh, a research scientist with the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, and Kenneth E. Skog of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.

The study was funded by the California Air Resources Board and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Campus tech incubator graduates first tenant

Tue, 08 May 2012 09:16:00 -0700

Hear this: Dysonics, a startup based on audio technology research conducted at the University of California, Davis, is the first company to "graduate" from the UC Davis College of Engineering's fledgling high-tech business incubator, the Engineering Translational Technology Center, also known as ETTC. After less than a year of incubation, Dysonics secured $750,000 in funding from angel investors, enough to set out on its own.

“We are very pleased to see Dysonics, our first ‘graduate,’ exit with a solid financing round under its belt,” said Harris Lewin, vice chancellor of research at UC Davis. “We are proud of the pioneering research conducted by Professor Ralph Algazi and his colleagues in the College of Engineering that made this successful spin-off possible,” he added. “UC Davis has a long track record of translating cutting-edge research into technologies with strong commercial potential, and we expect to see many more such new ventures being formed from the quality research being pursued by our faculty.”

The Engineering Translational Technology Center was established in 2010 to help technology startups, based on intellectual property developed at UC Davis, attract support from external financial investors. The ETTC provides member companies with campus space close to the college’s laboratories as well as support, mentorship and introductions to potential investors and strategic partners.

Members are selected for admission into the business incubator through a review process that includes an assessment of the commercial potential of the faculty research and its readiness for commercial development.

“Within the incubator, professors can stay close to their research and teaching while they develop their ideas, and students can get experience in translational technology research," said Bruce White, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC Davis, director of the ETTC and former dean of the College of Engineering. “The center identifies and nurtures promising research in the college, then supports faculty in the early stages of turning their academic research into commercial products.”

Dysonics was founded in 2011 by Algazi of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Robert Dalton Jr., an alumnus with a master's degree in engineering from UC Davis, and Richard Duda, a former research scientist at UC Davis.

The company, which has relocated its headquarters to San Francisco, is developing products for reproducing three-dimensional, immersive sound over headphones. The technology is based on UC Davis patents stemming from years of work conducted in Algazi's laboratory at UC Davis.

“The experience of hearing sound involves more than reproducing some acoustic vibrations at their source," Algazi said. “The shape of the head and ears, motion of the listener, and the acoustics of the room all play a role in the experience.” Algazi's research has explored how to capture and reproduce these nuances, for a more realistic, immersive listening experience.

Dysonics plans to market its technology initially to mobile device users seeking a richer, more engaging listening experience and new ways to interact with their content on their devices. Companies can also use the Dysonics technology for better audio quality for existing media and to develop new audio products and services.

Two other companies are currently being nurtured in the incubator. These are PutahGreen Systems, which makes software to dramatically reduce the energy needed to run networks by consolidating data traffic at less busy times, and Inserogen, which aims to grow vaccines for animal and human diseases in tobacco plants. Several other campus startups are being evaluated for potential admission into the ETTC.

The ETTC is one of several initiatives being undertaken at UC Davis that are designed to foster entrepreneurial activities and translational research on campus and facilitate effective technology transfer and new company creation as a means of achieving the university’s mission of service to people and society. Since 2004, more than 40 new companies have been spun off from UC Davis research. The university held 375 active patents at the end of the 2011 fiscal year.

UC Davis academic associations award prizes for faculty teaching, research, service

Fri, 04 May 2012 15:04:00 -0700

The UC Davis Academic Senate and Academic Federation have announced their 2012 teaching and research prize recipients.

The senate each year presents Distinguished Teaching Awards and Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Awards. The federation honors its members for Excellence in Teaching and Excellence in Research.

ACADEMIC SENATE

Distinguished Teaching Award: Undergraduate

• Frances Dolan, professor, Department of English — Teaching is central in her work and in her own scholarship. Describing her as a “dazzling lecturer” and mentor for students, English professor Margaret Ferguson said: “Whether teaching a course of 200 or mentoring a single MURALS (Mentorships for Undergraduate Research in Agriculture, Letters and Science) student, Fran pays extraordinary attention to the details of pedagogy; she is interested not only in introducing students to new texts, genres and critical questions, but also in strengthening their ability to read closely and to ask big questions of what they read.”

• Ari Kelman, associate professor, Department of History — He shines at the front of a lecture hall in a way that few others do, said David Biale, professor and chair, Department of History. “Working largely without notes, responding frequently to student questions without losing the thread of his own thought, he proceeds through a lecture, crafting a clear narrative and analysis as he goes along.” He added: “While he sometimes ventures into theater — his lecture on the caning of Sen. Charles Sumner is legendary — students appreciate his lectures most for their combination of sophistication and accessibility.”

• David Osleger, lecturer, Department of Geology — He has “an exceptional ability to get students involved in the course material,” his faculty colleagues wrote in nominating him. In evaluating his classes, students use words like “fascinating,” “fun” and “enlightening.” For many students, taking a general education geology class from Osleger led them to either take more geology classes, or to become geology or natural sciences majors. Osleger also is committed to recruiting students, especially from underrepresented groups, into natural sciences and geology, and mentoring undergraduates on career choices in geological sciences.

• Jay Stachowicz, associate professor, Department of Evolution and Ecology — He is a motivator, engaging and entertaining in the classroom, and “an incredible mentor,” encouraging students to participate in his lab. “He teaches students more than just the skills needed to run different marine ecology experiments,” Natalie Caulk, Elise Hinman and Kristen Kelley wrote in a nomination letter. “He teaches the process of scientific inquiry.” Faculty colleagues Artyom Kopp and Rick Grosberg said Stachowicz’s research experience energizes all of his classes: “His teaching embodies all that a great research university stands for.”

Distinguished Teaching Award: Graduate and Professional

• Richard Sexton, professor and chair, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics — He is a master of his subject matter, communicates well and is remarkably adept at maximizing classroom participation. In addition, he has played an integral role in curriculum development, especially earning praise for master’s-level macroeconomic theory, which he began teaching in 1994 and later expanded into a two-course sequence. Those courses now attract students from many other disciplines. Sexton pioneered the incorporation of industrial organization concepts into instruction on agricultural market analysis.

• Richard Tucker, professor of cellular biology and human anatomy, School of Medicine — He is the primary instructor for the single largest course in the four-year curriculum: “Gross, Radiologic and Developmental Anatomy,” which includes foreign terminology and physically demanding laboratory sessions. Students laud his caring and motivational style, “fantastic ability to present a large amount of developmental information in a short period of time,” and his knowledge of the material, which he “can explain at any level of detail the moment demands.”

Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award

• Liz Applegate, senior lecturer, Department of Nutrition — She puts as much effort into public service as she does to her teaching, notably Nutrition 10, which draws rave reviews, owing to her philosophy of making nutrition and fitness education actionable and pertinent. Off campus, she gives countless lectures and workshops to a broad range of community groups, particularly those comprising underrepresented populations — people who are disabled or chronically ill, for example. She also works with state and national organizations, and youth sport groups. In addition, she is a valuable resource for the media.

• John Largier, professor, Department of Environmental Science and Policy, and the Bodega Marine Laboratory — He has played a notable and sustained role in service to the public by providing scientific advice on matters related to the health of marine and coastal environments via media events and interviews, membership on assessment and advisory teams, participation in working groups and on task forces, and presentations at public meetings. His efforts are across the spectrum from service intended to spur development of science beyond the university, to the application of science in policy, advising agencies and informing the public.

• Mark J. Mannis, professor and chair, Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science, and director, Eye Center — Recognized for his efforts to increase the number of high-quality ocular tissues available for transplant, as well as the number of ophthalmologists and technicians trained in the latest corneal transplant and eye-banking methodologies — thus restoring sight for tens of thousands of people with blinding diseases around the globe. Starting 30 years ago, Mannis and the UC Davis Medical Center turned the Lions Club’s fledgling eye bank into the well-established Sierra Eye and Tissue Donor Services.

• Robert K. Washino, emeritus professor, Department of Entomology — Throughout his academic career and now in retirement, he gives freely of his time and expertise to local, state, federal and international agencies, as well as the private sector. He served on U.S. Department of Agriculture and California Department of Food and Agriculture task forces targeting such insects as the Africanized honeybee and Mediterranean fruit fly. He added breadth and depth to such organizations as the Entomological Society of America and the World Health Organization.

ACADEMIC FEDERATION

Excellence in Teaching

• Eric Mann, lecturer, Department of Microbiology — His faculty colleagues said he is enthusiastic about his teaching and strives to stimulate his students to think independently. In their evaluations, students praise his clear lecture style, meticulous organization and remarkable sense of humor. His extensive work in curriculum development included a revamp of introductory microbiology to meet the needs of preprofessional students, and a reorganization of the MIC 101 labs so they could be offered in the summer. His dedication is astounding, said his colleagues, noting that he supervises lab instruction 18 hours a week in a typical quarter.

• John Rundin, lecturer, Classics Program — He is described as being abundantly generous to students inside the classroom and out, keeping an open door for those in need of assistance in one of the most difficult subjects: Latin. “His office is next to mine, so I can hear him patiently explaining Latin forms or grammar — never losing his sense of compassion and his conviction that every student can grasp the language — and also offering encouragement and advice,” wrote Emily Albu, associate professor and Classics Program director. “I see the academic results in the number of students who continue to a classics major or minor.”

Excellence in Research

• Wei Yao, assistant adjunct professor, School of Medicine — Her most recent work, published in Nature Medicine earlier this year, involved the development of a novel technique (using the molecule LLP2A-Ale) to enhance bone growth — offering a potential treatment for osteoporosis. Nancy E. Lane, who holds the Endowed Chair in Healthy Aging and Geriatric Medicine, said Yao has made a number of seminal scientific discoveries at UC Davis. “The scope of inquiry, the importance of the topic matter, the methodical construction of a unified approach to the questions and the gratifying results all speak for themselves,” Lane said.

Lighting innovator assumes first Rosenfeld Chair in Energy Efficiency

Thu, 03 May 2012 08:50:00 -0700

Michael Siminovitch, director of the California Lighting Technology Center, has been named the first Arthur H. Rosenfeld Chair in Energy Efficiency at the University of California, Davis.

The designation honors both Siminovitch, a professor of design whose work is revolutionizing lighting throughout California, and Rosenfeld, considered the “father of energy efficiency.”

“I am absolutely delighted that Michael has received this recognition,” said Jessie Ann Owens, dean of the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies, which encompasses the Department of Design. “He is a visionary leader and the perfect person to inaugurate this chair.”

Siminovitch has directed the CLTC since it was established in 2003, under the UC Davis Department of Design. It has since become one of the most respected lighting research centers in the United States. Working with industry partners, utilities, government agencies, and others, CLTC is dedicated to advancing energy-efficient lighting and daylighting design.

High-efficiency lighting developed at CLTC now illuminates buildings statewide, as well as UC Davis parking lots and garages, the Richmond Department of Public Health and other state agencies, higher education campuses outside UC Davis, such as California State University-Long Beach, and Raley’s supermarkets.

The lighting retrofits at UC Davis are part of the university’s Smart Lighting Initiative co-developed by Siminovitch to reduce the campus’s electricity use for lighting by 60 percent by the end of 2015. When the initiative is complete, the campus is expected to reduce its carbon footprint by about 10,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent and save an estimated $3 million each year. The CLTC also advised developers of UC Davis West Village, the nation’s largest planned zero net energy community.

CLTC is part of the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center, of which Rosenfeld is a founding advisory board member. Rosenfeld is currently a professor emeritus of physics at UC Berkeley, co-founder and former director of the Center for Building Science at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and retired California Energy Commissioner.

“We’re thrilled to recognize both Art Rosenfeld and Michael Siminovitch — two extraordinary people who are doing good things for California and the world,” said Nicole Biggart, Chevron Chair in Energy Efficiency, director of the Energy Efficiency Center, and professor in the Graduate School of Management.

In the 1970s, Rosenfeld was one of the first in the nation to propose that conserving energy was cheaper and smarter than building new power plants and finding more nonrenewable energy sources. His contributions to energy efficiency are so profound that a new unit to describe energy saved — the Rosenfeld — was named after him in 2010.

While working as a student researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Siminovitch was mentored by Rosenfeld, whose ideas left a deep impression on him.

“He was an enthusiastic champion of this thing called energy efficiency,” said Siminovitch, recalling those early years. “At the time, he was one of the few in the country linking technology, design and human behavior all together with energy efficiency. The California Lighting Technology Center is based on those cornerstones, which I learned from him.”

Like Rosenfeld, Siminovitch is intent on using science and design to make an impact. In addition to teaching the next generation of lighting designers and helping to develop new energy-efficient technologies, he has helped to shape public policy in California. He often advises regulatory agencies, manufacturers and architects, all with a focus on bringing energy efficient technologies to the public. His efforts to make adaptive lighting a standard in building design helped shape changes to Title 24 codes and standards.

“The Rosenfeld Chair is about the can-do culture of UC Davis and the California Lighting Technology Center — a culture of innovation and cooperation,” Siminovitch said. “We’re creating real change and moving ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace by working collaboratively with industry.”

The new chair was endowed by more than 70 individuals and organizations. Major donors include Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Sempra Energy, Southern California Edison, the California Clean Energy Fund, Chevron, ClimateWorks Foundation, Exelon Corporation, Goldman Sachs, Power Integrations Inc., and Wendy and Eric Schmidt. A full list of donors is online at: http://eec.ucdavis.edu/events/rosenfeld_donors.php.

The endowment will help the chair holder promote the EEC’s mission to develop and commercialize energy-efficient technologies, teach future leaders in energy efficiency, and conduct critical policy-supporting research.

Siminovitch is a graduate of Carleton University in Canada and received his master’s degrees in both industrial design and architecture from the University of Illinois. He earned his doctorate degree in architecture and human factors engineering from the University of Michigan.

Genome scientist elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Wed, 02 May 2012 11:05:00 -0700

Harris Lewin, vice chancellor for research and professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States. Including Lewin, 21 UC Davis faculty are members of the academy.

"I'm delighted that the academy has chosen to recognize Harris Lewin's work and achievements," said Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi. "As vice chancellor for research, his experience in building research collaborations across disciplinary boundaries is invaluable as we take our research enterprise to the next level."

"I am grateful to all those institutions, and the individuals within them, who enabled me to maximize the extraordinary opportunities presented by more than 30 years in science," Lewin said. "In particular, I must thank the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for allowing me the freedom to explore and to create; my family and mentors; and the many graduate students, postdocs and staff who are the primary reasons for my success.

"Special appreciation goes to my colleagues here at UC Davis, who exemplify excellence at every level, and who have supported me in my transition to the faculty and administration."

Throughout his career, Lewin has been deeply involved in interdisciplinary research that has the potential to move from the laboratory to the marketplace, where it can help solve real-world problems. As a graduate student at UC Davis, he discovered genetic factors linked to disease resistance in cattle, leading to a patent on a screening test for cattle resistance to leukemia viruses. After graduating from UC Davis in 1984 with a doctorate in immunology, he moved to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he was founding director of the Institute for Genomic Biology. He is widely known for his work in mammalian genomics, especially in livestock, and he played a leading role in the sequencing of the bovine genome.

Lewin returned to UC Davis in 2011 as vice chancellor for research. In that position, he oversees the Office of Research, which is responsible for organizing and promoting research on campus; managing grant applications; and overseeing intellectual property, technology transfer and efforts to translate UC Davis discoveries into new companies and products. Lewin's office is also responsible for interdisciplinary Organized Research Units, research programs and facilities, such as the Institute for Transportation Studies, John Muir Institute of the Environment, Biotechnology Program and the Crocker Nuclear Laboratory.

Lewin is holder of the Robert and Rosabel Osborne Endowed Chair and Professor in the Department of Evolution and Ecology, one of the top ranked departments in the country. He is also a member of the UC Davis Genome Center where he has a laboratory and is continuing his research on genome evolution.

In 2010-11, UC Davis received $684 million in funds to support research. According to a survey by the National Science Foundation, UC Davis ranks 16th in the nation in university research and development expenditures.

Katehi has set a goal of increasing the campus’s research budget to $1 billion, and Lewin has taken steps to help achieve that goal, including streamlining processes in the Office of Research and offering more support for interdisciplinary groups of faculty seeking to apply for large, multimillion-dollar grants.

The Office of Research recently announced the Interdisciplinary Frontiers Program, which will award grants of up to $1 million to faculty in science, engineering, arts and humanities as "seed money" to launch projects that can later compete for funding from external sources.

In 2011, Lewin was co-recipient of the prestigious Wolf Prize in Agriculture for his work on genetics, genomics and disease resistance in cattle. He also is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Lewin and 83 other new members will be inducted into the National Academy of Sciences next April during its 150th annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furthering of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Established in 1863, the academy has served to "investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art" when called upon to do so by any department of the government. For more information, or for the full list of newly elected members, visit http://www.nasonline.org/.

Biomedical researchers receive Hartwell Foundation awards

Tue, 01 May 2012 11:00:00 -0700

Two faculty members from the University of California, Davis, are among 12 scientists selected to receive Individual Biomedical Research Awards from The Hartwell Foundation this year. The awards provide $100,000 of direct support each per year for three years, as well as videoconferencing equipment for periodic communications with the foundation and other award recipients. The foundation is also funding a UC Davis Hartwell Foundation postdoctoral researcher with $50,000 per year over two years.

The awardees are: Frederic Chedin, associate professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, College of Biological Sciences; Noriko Satake M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics in the UC Davis School of Medicine and Comprehensive Cancer Center; and Paula Goines, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Molecular Biosciences in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

In 2011, The Hartwell Foundation designated UC Davis as one of its Top Ten Centers for Biomedical Research. Including Chedin and Satake, the foundation has made Individual Biomedical Research Awards to five UC Davis scientists and engineers since 2009.

The prestigious designation in 2012 also meant that UC Davis received a Hartwell Fellowship to fund one postdoctoral researcher, chosen by the university, who exemplifies the values of the foundation. The fellowship award is intended to support scientists in the early stages of biomedical research careers by enabling them to pursue further specialized training. Goines is the first fellowship recipient from UC Davis.

“The foundation is impressed with the manner in which UC Davis has embraced the Hartwell process to inspire innovation and achievement. UC Davis' leadership exceeded our expectations by their collegial participation to identify outstanding proposals from interested faculty and win two awards this year,” said Fred Dombrose, president of The Hartwell Foundation.

Chedin will use the funds to explore a novel approach to understanding a common autoimmune disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, in which the body's immune system attacks itself, including making antibodies against DNA.

At any time, most of our DNA is "silenced" or switched off by a chemical modification, except at a few specific sites, called CG islands, which serve as “on” switches for our genes. Chedin's lab has been studying how these CG islands are protected from silencing; he thinks that too little silencing might play a role in the development of systemic lupus.

He will test his hypothesis by using as a model system the severe but rare autoimmune disorder called Aicardi-Goutières syndrome, which mimics early onset lupus. The syndrome affects infants, and in most cases leads to death by age 10 to 15. Understanding the biological mechanisms that underlie Aicardi-Goutières will generate critical insights into how the innate immune system can be triggered. If Chedin is successful, his efforts will lead to the development of new diagnostic tests and therapies for children affected with early onset lupus and related autoimmune diseases.

Satake is working to develop a new method to treat childhood leukemia, called molecular targeting. The approach is different from conventional chemotherapy drugs, which kill healthy blood cells and leukemic cells equally. Satake proposes to develop a unique method to deliver a type of molecule that interferes with gene expression, called siRNA. She seeks to deliver it specifically to the leukemia cells, but not to normal healthy cells. If she is successful, her narrow-target approach could prove a transformative pediatric cancer treatment.

Satake explained that while considerable gains have been made in curing pediatric cancers, there are still lethal forms of the disease that resist treatment.

“Even when we cure the cancer, many of those patients are known to have significant long-term side effects or late effects derived from radiation and chemotherapy that can cause heart failure, osteoporosis, learning disabilities and even secondary cancer,” she said. “Unfortunately, those are irreversible. The new targeted therapy to be developed will not only be more effective in treating cancers but also have fewer side effects to normal cells than current therapies.”

Goines is a recent Ph.D. graduate from UC Davis. She will work with Pamela Lein, professor of neurotoxicology in the Department of Molecular Biosciences, on a new approach to studying autism by looking at nerve cells grown from adult stem cells present in the hair follicles of patients.

In the Hartwell competition, all nominees submit a detailed research proposal, are personally interviewed and make a formal presentation of their proposed research. In selecting awardees, The Hartwell Foundation takes into account the nature of the proposed innovation, the extent to which a strategic or translational approach might promote rapid clinical application of research results, the supportive role and extent of collaboration in the proposed research, the institutional commitment to provide encouragement and technical support to the investigator, and the extent to which funding the investigator will make a difference.

A year after bin Laden’s death, UC Davis professor analyzes his role in al-Qaida history

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:55:00 -0700

It has been a year since Navy SEALs stormed the compound of al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and killed him, but for University of California, Davis Professor Flagg Miller, the job on bin Laden isn’t finished. He still hears his voice.

Miller, an associate professor of religious studies, has been listening to bin Laden and his associates since 2003, translating a collection of more than 1,500 tapes acquired by CNN in 2001 from bin Laden’s residence in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Miller was the first academic researcher to study the tapes. He has been lecturing, writing papers and penning a book based on the tapes’ contents, working to bring what he says is a hugely misunderstood bin Laden legacy into focus.

“Ten years later and with bin Laden dead, I believe that we are in a better position to reassess the accuracy and legacy of this early wealth of history for our understanding of the movement bin Laden claimed to represent.”

Miller explains the history behind al-Qaida leading up to both the 9/11 attacks and bin Laden’s death, in a paper published this spring by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Advanced Governmental Studies, “Re-reading the Origins of al-Qaeda through Osama bin Laden’s Former Audiocassette collection.” The paper, which was first presented at a conference last fall, is available at: http://issuu.com/johnshopkinsaap/docs/gov1220_ndu-final-issuu?mode=window&viewMode=doublePage).

“After 9/11, we needed a set of narratives to explain how this happened and what to do about it,” Miller said. “We in the United States thought we were the prime target, and we were on that day. But al-Qaida had left many other victims in its wake — both before 9/11 and afterwards.”

According to Miller, the U.S. — in a rush to hold someone accountable — oversimplified its views of Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida terrorist organization, based in part on misleading court records, poor translations and an inadequate understanding of al-Qaida’s history.

Western intelligence and terrorism experts, together with global media networks, helped fuel bin Ladin’s growing reputation in ways that were exploited by Osama and those who supported his militant vision, he argues in his paper.

Miller’s primary sources include the tapes as well as military and court documents related to the U.S. government’s prosecutions of bin Laden and one of his associates, Enaam Arnaout.

Miller’s research suggests that al-Qaida marginalized bin Laden in the early years. By the latter half of the 1990s, however, bin Laden had positioned himself as al-Qaida’s leader, an achievement Miller credits to self-marketing and media outreach — as well as family wealth, social connections among Saudis, an expanding community of Afghan-Arab volunteers, and political alliances forged throughout the 1980s and early ‘90s.

Bin Laden’s anti-American sentiments had also become very much part of his public rhetoric by the late 1990s, Miller found, a departure from his speeches during the 1980s and early ’90s, in which he directed his outrage at corrupt Muslims — not the West.

In the months and years following 9/11, many experts spoke of bin Laden’s “intimate involvement with the establishment and development of al-Qaida,” Miller notes. But that view exaggerates bin Laden’s true role, he argues.

“Given the generalizing and often breezy nature of narratives about bin Laden’s role in history, it is important to recognize their inadequacy as records of the past,” Miller warns.

Listen to two of bin Laden's recordings (with English translations):

A list of UC Davis experts on the death of Osama bin Laden can be found at: http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10200.

A videotaped interview with Flagg Miller about his research on Osama bin Laden is available at: http://www.youtube.com/embed/ngONOOwf6Xs.

Expert sources on Calif. governor’s new green-building order

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:00:00 -0700

The following UC Davis experts are available to talk about the bold targets outlined in the governor’s green building order issued April 25. The executive order (B-18-12) aims to ensure that state facilities waste less energy on lighting, water, air-conditioning and heating.

UC Davis leadership in California energy savings

Nicole Woolsey Biggart, director of the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center, holder of the Chevron Chair in Energy Efficiency, and professor at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, is an expert in organizational theory and management of innovation, and can discuss the barriers to implementation of energy efficient technologies in the commercial building industry. The Energy Efficiency Center works with inventors, utilities and investors to propel promising energy efficiency solutions to the market, with a focus on lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and water use and transport. Contact: Nicole Woolsey Biggart, Energy Efficiency Center, (530) 304-5052, nwbiggart@ucdavis.edu.

How to slash lighting energy use

When the California Public Utilities Commission called for a 60 to 80 percent statewide reduction in electrical lighting consumption by 2020, UC Davis was the first large institution in the state to act. Guided by UC Davis’ California Lighting Technology Center, campus administrators began a Smart Lighting Initiative to reduce the campus's electricity use for all lighting by 60 percent by the end of 2015. Already, some campus facilities have achieved greater than 70 percent savings with the latest technologies. Contact: Michael Siminovitch, CLTC, (530) 747-3835, mjsiminovitch@ucdavis.edu. Also reach Siminovitch through Kelly Cunningham, CLTC outreach director, (530) 747-3824, kcunning@ucdavis.edu.

How California purchasing power can drive change

“The governor’s new executive order provides an opportunity for the state to further demonstrate leadership by using its purchasing power to drive innovation and adoption of efficiency technologies and strategies,” said Anthony Eggert, executive director of the new UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy. Before Eggert came to UC Davis in January, he advised Gov. Brown on clean energy and efficiency policy. Contact: Anthony Eggert, UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy, (530) 752-1083, areggert@ucdavis.edu. (Traveling in China until April 29; use e-mail, expect delay.)

Curbing lighting’s big energy appetite

Lighting accounts for nearly 30 percent of California's electricity use. Due to continued use of inefficient lighting, much of this energy is wasted. The California Public Utilities Commission has called for a 60 to 80 percent statewide reduction in electrical lighting consumption by 2020. The California Lighting Technology Center at UC Davis works closely with state agencies, manufacturing partners, and the research community to add new requirements in the pending state building code. “Upgrades for state facilities represent a significant opportunity to achieve our energy efficiency goals, provide green jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions statewide,” said Michael Siminovitch, director of the California Lighting Technology Center and holder of the UC Davis Rosenfeld Chair in Energy Efficiency. Contact: Michael Siminovitch, CLTC, (530) 747-3835, mjsiminovitch@ucdavis.edu. Also reach Siminovitch through Kelly Cunningham, CLTC outreach director, (530) 747-3824, kcunning@ucdavis.edu.

Making rooms comfortable with less energy

Energy-efficient heating, ventilation and air-conditioning/cooling (HVAC) is the mission of UC Davis’ Western Cooling Efficiency Center. The center is supported by the California Energy Commission, as well as industry affiliates including utilities, manufacturers and contractors. Its research has changed California Title 24 policy to make rooftop packaged cooling units more efficient. The center has also installed and evaluated energy-saving strategies for the CEC’s Public Interest Energy Research program, such as “demand control” kitchen ventilation. Western Cooling Efficiency Center director Mark Modera developed Aeroseal, for sealing HVAC ducts in homes, recently named the “best home improvement” product by This Old House Magazine and currently under study in a Stockton home. Modera holds the UC Davis Sempra Energy Chair in Energy Efficiency. Contact: Mark Modera, Western Cooling Efficiency Center, (530) 754-7671, mpmodera@ucdavis.edu.

Less energy to use and move water

Almost 20 percent of electricity used in California is spent moving, using and treating water. Frank Loge, director of the UC Davis Center for Water-Energy Efficiency said, "Public policy and business practice have treated water and energy as separate resources, but they are inexorably linked.” The center’s researchers have worked with the UC Davis Child Family Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to commercialize water- and energy-conservation technologies, such as a system to convert wastewater into biodegradable plastic (being developed by Micromidas in West Sacramento). Center researchers have also begun work on a statewide strategic plan for water-energy conservation. Loge is a professor of civil and environmental engineering. Contact: Frank Loge, Center for Water-Energy Efficiency, (530) 754-2297, fjloge@ucdavis.edu.http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10221&preview=yes

UC Davis conference explores how media portray Muslim women

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:15:00 -0700

April 30, Monday -- “Muslim Women in the New York Times 1980-2011: Liberalism, Feminism and Racism,” is a conference looking at examples of articles, photography and headlines in The New York Times that portray Muslim women in stereotypical and negative ways. Research will be presented by professors, doctoral students and recent graduates of the University of California, Davis. A complete conference schedule is available at: http://sjoseph.ucdavis.edu/media-project/muslim-women-in-the-new-york-times-1980-2011-liberalism-feminism-and-racism. This event is free and open to the public. UC Davis Conference Center, Ballroom A (across from the Mondavi Center) on the UC Davis campus.

Suad Joseph, founding director of the UC Davis Middle East/South Asia Studies Program and a professor of both anthropology and women and gender studies, graduate students and recent graduates counted by hand and used computer-generated word counts of key words used in articles about Arab and Muslim Americans. They found systematic misrepresentation of Arabs, Arab Americans, Muslim Americans and Islam. The misrepresentation focused on Muslim women and the “veil.”

The conference is co-sponsored by the UC Davis Department of Anthropology, Middle East/South Asia Studies Program and the Women and Gender Studies Program. The project is funded by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society, UC Berkeley. The center was founded in 2001 to better apply technologies to research throughout the UC system. Funding also was provided by the University of California Center for New Racial Studies (a multicampus, interdisciplinary program).

Evolution scientist elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:15:00 -0700

Maureen Stanton, vice provost for academic affairs and professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, has been elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Stanton's research focuses on how plant and animal populations adapt to environmental change, whether caused by natural processes or human activities, knowledge that is critical for predicting the long-term consequences of climate change, biological invasions and other alterations of global ecosystems. She has conducted fieldwork in both the U.S. and Kenya.

Stanton earned her bachelor's degree in biological sciences from Stanford University and her Ph.D. from Harvard before joining the UC Davis faculty in 1982 as an assistant professor in the Department of Botany. She served as the director of the UC Davis Center of Population Biology from 1993 to 1998 and chaired the Department of Evolution and Ecology from 2005 to 2011. Stanton took up the position as vice provost for Academic Affairs, overseeing the recruitment and appointment of Academic Senate faculty and Academic Federation members, in January 2012.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1790, is an independent policy center whose membership includes scientists, scholars, artists, actors, policy makers and accomplished people from all walks of life. Among the 230 new members elected this year are Clint Eastwood, Paul McCartney, Jeffrey Bezos and Hillary Clinton.

Stanton becomes the 21st current or emeritus faculty member from UC Davis to be a member of the academy.

Genomes of two champion bulls sequenced

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:49:00 -0700

With more than 60,000 descendants in six generations, Pawnee Farm Arlinda Chief and his son Walkway Chief Mark cast a long genetic shadow. New research on the genomes of the two bulls show how portions of their DNA that control important traits such as disease resistance or milk production have spread throughout the contemporary Holstein breed, the world’s highest-producing dairy animal.

The research, published online April 23 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may provide for faster and less costly methods to breed genetically elite cattle.

"The technique we developed, called ‘haplotracking,’ allows researchers to identify chromosome segments that are under selection in a certain population and match them with genes controlling specific traits," said Harris Lewin, senior author of the paper, who led the research project while at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Lewin is now vice chancellor for research at the University of California, Davis.

The cattle genome research offers a window into evolution, showing how selection affects genes that control complex traits like resistance to infectious diseases, Lewin said.

Chief, born in 1962, and Mark, born in 1978, each account for about 7 percent of the genomes of the current North American Holstein cow population, according to research published previously by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The new study allows researchers to track specific genes in the population.

"These were two of the greatest bulls in the history of the Holstein breed," Lewin said.

Lewin and his colleagues sequenced the genomes of both bulls, identifying more than one million single-nucleotide polymorphisms. These changes, known as SNPs, occur when a single letter of the genetic code is changed. The researchers used this information to identify haplotypes, or stretches of DNA, that Chief and Mark had passed down to their descendants intact.

Within these haplotypes, the researchers identified genes and SNPs related to fertility, milk yield and virus resistance – all traits that could potentially and significantly augment the economic viability of a dairy cattle-breeding operation or dairy farm.

Dairy cattle have been under intense selection for economically important traits such as milk yield and milk fat for more than a half-century, resulting in large databases of production data and DNA samples – much more information than is available for human populations. The comparative wealth of genetic information about cattle, especially the ability to reconstruct and track individual haplotypes, may prove vital in understanding the genetic basis for complex traits in both human and other animal populations, Lewin said.

The first author of the paper is Denis Larkin of the Department of Animal Sciences at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, now at Aberystwyth University in the United Kingdom. In addition to Lewin, other authors include: Hans Daetwyler, Mike Goddard, Iona Macleod and Ben Hayes at the Department of Primary Industries, Victoria, Australia; and other researches at UIUC; the University of Melbourne, Australia; La Trobe University, Australia; Roche Inc., Indianapolis; and 454 Life Sciences, Branford, Conn. The research was partly supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.